BANGKOK, The World Bank has slashed its forecast for the global
economic expansion in 2022 to 2.9 percent from 4.1 percent previously predicted.
Despite the limited risks on recession, considering altogether the surge in
energy prices and food coupled with supply chain disruption resulted from Russia
invasion of Ukraine and interest rate hikes by central banks globally to curb
inflation, all these have created policy rate gaps hammering offshore fund flows
and foreign exchange rates.
SET Senior Executive Vice President Soraphol Tulayasathien said that investors
concerned over inflation which hit a record high in several decades with the
sharp slowdown in global economic growth, intensifying stagflation risk. As a
result, yields on many major stock exchange indices tumbled more than 20 percent
from this year’s record highs, entering a bear market, with the sign of
consideration for increasing cash position in portfolios. At end-June 2022, SET
Index closed at 1,568.33 points, or a 5.7 percent decrease from the previous
month and a 5.4 percent decline from the end of 2021, comparatively less than
the average of indices of other stock exchanges in the region.
Key highlights for June
-At the end of June 2022, SET Index closed at 1,568.33 points, down 5.7 percent
from the preceding month and a meagre 5.4 percent from the end of 2021, less
than the average of indices of other stock exchanges in the region.
-In the first six months of 2022, SET Index was driven by the industries that
benefited from the country reopening. Compared to the end of 2021, the
industries that outperformed SET Index were Services, Agro & Food Industry,
Resources, and Property & construction industry groups.
-In June 2022, the average daily trading value of SET and mai amounted to THB
71.69 billion (approx. USD 2.01 billion), down 26.2 percent from the same month
a year earlier. In the first half of 2022, the daily trading value averaged THB
87.34 billion. Foreign investors sold a net THB 29.99 billion, marking this
year’s first month of withdrawal in June after being net buyers for the sixth
consecutive month. However, they remained net buyers of THB 109.07 billion
during the January-to-June period.
-In June 2022, there was one new listed company on SET: Teka Construction pcl
(TEKA); and another one new listed company on mai: Sahathaiprinting & Packaging
pcl (STP).
-The Thai stock exchange’s forward P/E ratio at end-June 2022 was 16.1 times,
above the Asian stock markets’ average of 12.4 times. The historical P/E ratio
stood at 16.8 times, higher than the Asian stock markets’ average of 13.0 times.
-Dividend yield ratio at end-June 2022 was 2.87 percent, slightly below the
Asian stock markets’ average of 2.89 percent.
Derivatives market
-In June 2022, Thailand Futures Exchange (TFEX)’s average daily trading volume
recorded at 638,943 contracts, an increase of 35.4 percent from the same month
last year, mainly driven by the increase in Single Stock Futures and SET50 Index
Futures. For the first six months of 2022, TFEX’s average daily trading volume
totaled 571,320 contracts, or a 1.6 percent increase from the same period a year
earlier.
Source: The Stock Exchange of Thailand